Reluctant Learning

I have intentionally seldom prayed for patience. Additionally, I have been known to chastise people who have voiced a prayer in which they asked God for patience on my behalf. (Why would I pray for something that I know is gained only through opportunities to practice the thing I am lacking?!)

Cultivating patience also involves waiting and I want immediate results (instant gratification). Thankfully, God gives us what we need, not merely what we think we want.

Over the past twenty five years, in the midst of

cleaning up spills – again

sleepness nights – again

answering what’s for dinner for the third time since lunch – again

calling poison control – again

waiting in the ER with an adventuresome (or accident-prone) child – again

teaching little ones how to read – again

teaching high school Algebra – again

reading through the same books aloud – again

training new chores – again

God has given me daily opportunities to develop the very thing I’d been intentionally avoiding. He developed patience in me stealthily over the long haul of raising the next generation.

Norwegian Christian Krohg’s “Sleeping Mother with Child,” c. 1883

Patience, it turns out, is worth the years of practice it takes to cultivate it.

PONDER: Which of the qualities listed in Colossians does God most desire to develop in you? List the opportunities He has granted you to do just that…and thank Him for them.

PRAY: Father, I thank You for faithfully providing me with opportunities to grow. I want to be like Jesus, yet I am so reluctant to learn in some areas of my life. Thank You for being patient with me and that Your work in my heart includes the areas in which I am most resistant. Please continue to bring about in me the good work that you have begun.